Posted on 10/29/2007 2:00:05 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
The Skinny: Rival Drug Cartels Battle It Out With Smuggled American Weapons
The U.S. isn't the only country struggling with the effects of what's coming illegally over the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Washington Post reports that 100 percent of drug-related killings in Mexico are carried out with smuggled American weapons, according to Mexican police. About 2,000 enter Mexico each day, according to a Mexican government study.
The guns are "crucial tools in an astoundingly barbaric war between rival cartels that has cost 4,000 lives in the past 18 months and sent law enforcement agencies in Washington and Mexico City into crisis mode," the Post reports.
Officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms hope that some of the money will be used to give Mexican police chiefs greater access to U.S. databases for gun traces. Right now, the traces can only be made through federal police headquarters in Mexico City. That takes so long that many local cops don't bother.
They get into Mexico stuffed into the baggy pant legs or hidden in the trunks of "ants," or gunrunners -- often aided by corrupt customs officials. The weapons are often bought legally at gun shows in Arizona and other border states where loopholes allow criminals to stock up without background checks.
Guns are now flooding into the country in part because of the cartel war, and in part because of the ease of buying high-powered weapons since the U.S. assault weapons ban was not renewed in 2004, according to an ATF official.
The American taxpayer must now mop up the bloody results of the ban's demise: President Bush has promised $500 million in U.S. aid to help Mexico battle drug cartels, who are formidable precisely because of their steady supply of AK-47s and grenade launchers that were made In the U.S.A.
Both Mexico and Canada picking away at our gun rights.
Ooooookaaay.
Maybe CBS can also tell us about the Mexicans fuelling the Drug War in US cities, can't they?
With all those killings going on, they are all comitted by expensive U.S. weapons, none by the dirt cheap AK's available in the rest of the world.... I'm so glad we can turn to the Washington Post for honest, unbiased reporting from such reliable and trustworthy sources as the Mexican government...</sarcasm>
Just doing the jobs Mexican guns won’t do?
Gun runners ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
obviously we should keep the borders open, legalize drugs and just ban all guns. And end global warming.
Dumb stinking bastards are killing each other and of course the USA is to blame. I can’t stand the stench of the MSM much longere.
If we build the wall, this problem will go away.
So, Mexico - which do you want? A wall-less border to dump your excess population? Or a border wall to keep “evil” American guns out?
I don’t suppose it has occurred to See BS that guns can be smuggled in from elsewhere in Latin America, or any other part of the world for that matter. No gun ever came over the Guatemalan border? How odd. Maybe the Mexican authorities are much more dilegent there.
It would especially not occur to the media that firearms might be manufactured in Latin America, since the average media lib is a closet racist and assumes that Latin Americans can make nothing but coca paste, babies, and tortillas.
A wall-less border and Billions of US taxpayer dollars to fight “evil” American guns in Mexico!
B.S. is far too mild a term for this load of lies. Why pay $400 for a semi-auto AK at a “gun show” when you can buy the real thing for a fraction of that? Gun smugglers traffic all over the world, not from US gun shows. This must be a press release from the brady bunch.
“They get into Mexico stuffed into the baggy pant legs or hidden in the trunks of “ants,” or gunrunners — often aided by corrupt customs officials”
Lol. So how about getting rid of the corrupt customs officials?
Not so odd. I have heard that the Mexican government uses Ma Deuces to secure their southern border.
Who's to blame here, us or them?
Mexican drugs fuel bloody American wars. Both problems could be handled if the two corrupt governments would put the safety of their citizens ahead of stuffing their own pockets.
Close the border
Close the border
Hmmmm, isn't that a sign that we may already have a North American Union in operation?
Corrupt officials are a custom and tradition of all Latin American people.
Preserving the culture and tradition of corruptness is encouraged and protected by both the United Nations and Mexico.
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